Sony A80J BBC iPlayer/Youview Catch up Issues

[joshe_]

Ever since the BBC iPlayer app was made available for 2021 Sony Bravia TVs, the formatting on the app has been incorrect. It's interfaced is often zoomed in compared to my Virgin V6 box's app and the BBC logo whilst playing content is often stretched and more 'zoomed in' than on other devices with the iPlayer app.

Does anyone else have this issue, or has managed to fix it? Any advice/fixes are much appreciated

[stripealipe]

Yeah, everyone has this problem and quite fankly it's pretty lame for an expensive TV being sold with the promise of Google TV transforming your lives lol..

Quite 'simply' in order for iPlayer to work and display correctly, you need to buy a digital aerial, tune a few channels, then choose an SD channel (not HD) and then change the display settings to 'Wide Mode=FULL' and 'Display Area=+1'

Of course, whilst the settings do actually hold, after turning the TV on and then off you do then have to tune into an SD channel again in order to force the settings to be recognised again before playing anything in iPlayer, else it defaults to Wide=Auto and everything is zoomed and hence pixelated.

All in all a complete and utter joke especially considering this is Sony and the BBC...

[HannahEd01]

Hi joshe_, it's a first for me to come across this issue, did you try adjusting the aspect ratio on the TV? Also, what's the current software version? "Click on Help on the remote to get it". Do you have a digital aerial? Also, if you can upload two pics from both devices, that would be helpful. 

[stripealipe]

Heya Hannah,

I'm sorry, but as a specialist you don't seem to know much about a very well used and popular app...

You even list this continuing bug on your support site and as far as I know it plagues many of your TVs, especially later/latest models. And the fact that we're unable to set the 'wide mode' in your apps means that without having an actual aerial, the app will always display wrongly and be zoomed and hence pixelated.

I did a search for to save you the hassle btw...

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00286315

[royabrown2]

@stripealipe 

At the risk of getting a gobful, like @HannahEd01, have you tried going to the TV app and seeing if that makes the setting available to you, even though you won’t be tuning any Freeview channels in?

Or seeing if the setting is available for Satellite/Freesat, if you use that?

But yes, Sony still seem to have trouble with the idea that people might buy one of their televisions, and not watch television programmes on it 😛

[stripealipe]

Heya Roy, and yeah, soz I was a bit sharp earlier (and soz Hannah..) Didn't realise this was non-Sony and community only supported ..

Just annoys me when large corporations simply mess up again and again and again and again and again....

Anyways.. iPlayer has no setting for aspect ratio or sizing. No apps do. This is handled by Sony it seems with their 'wide mode' setting and unfortunately for us the iPlayer app defaults to 'auto' which seemingly then tries to account for a wide angle lens kind of shot where iPlayer is concerned. This means the middle part of the picture zooms and the sides start to distort. Pretty annoying when watching some of the class leading content from the BBC...

Anyways, like I've pointed out. No way around this aside from actually buying an aerial, tuning in to an SD (has to be SD) channel and then making the settings there. Oh, it has to be using the Freeview tuner too, as it's impossible to change any of these settings any other way..

There ya go. I've sent a support mail to Sony, and I don't expect anything back, as I see this has been going on for a pretty long time now, so they, the BBC and Google obviously don't really care lol.

Cheers.

[royabrown2]

@stripealipe 

Many people have probably got an indoor aerial knocking about unused, in a cupboard or similar. If you don’t want to pony up the few quid one would cost to buy, maybe canvass friends and relatives for the borry of one for a few hours…,

[stripealipe]

Yeah thanks Roy, I already had one and did this after searching, digging, finding out why it was happening and then messing around wasting time sorting the problem out.

Many don't have an aerial.

Also, the settings don't stick exactly. Like, they stick, but, every time you turn the TV on you will need to have tuned into an SD digital channel at least once for the settings to then take effect before then going into BBC iPlayer, else the picture will be distorted. Nice.

[HannahEd01]

Hello stripealipe, I asked about an aerial for a reason, anyway, glad that you have found this workaround. Best of luck. joshe_ any updates?